The life changes continue!
These past few weeks have included new jobs for Kevin and me, a new mode
of transportation, and several new kids (but not in our family!). I guess I’ll back up and start with school…
We are now officially no longer on “student” status, but
have graduated to the role of teachers!
Kevin and I both started teaching at the kids’ international school
about 3 weeks ago. We each teach two
classes per day, and we’re learning more than we thought possible and enjoying
it almost as much! My biggest concerns
were trying to balance the roles of Mom and teacher, and also that we might be
drawn into the ex-pat “bubble” in a way that was not consistent with our
original goals in coming to China. With
thanks, I can attest that neither of my fears has come to fruition! Noah has just started pre-school at the
international school, and between the blessing of his teacher and their
outdoor, active curriculum and the fact that he comes home with me every day at
noon, dropping him off at school in the mornings has been a much more joyful
experience for both of us than I dreamed it would be. The work I’ve had to do has been manageable,
although time-consuming, and I have LOVED being back in the classroom after so
many years of not. My students are
great, and more motivated than I was used to in the States, my supervisors are
all fantastic, and it’s phenomenal to teach in a Christian environment. And the relationships that we’ve been blessed
with over the past 3 years that we’ve been here have proven to remain solid;
there is no shortage of opportunities to continue investing outside of the
international school bubble!
This is Kevin’s first time in a high school classroom, but
he is making the transition really well.
His students seem to really enjoy his class (when I peek through the
windows to check on him!), and he’s learning a lot about how to be a more
effective teacher in all things. One of
the bigger blessings, too, is getting to work together! Since we’re both part-time teachers, we don’t
have our own classrooms, which means we spend a lot of time in the teacher’s
workroom in our cubicles. We’re on the
same schedule for the most part, so we get to work side-by-side and help one
another when needed. We’re certainly
grateful that we have a marriage in which we enjoy one another’s company to the
extent that we do. We’re really seeing
the Hand at work in planning all things to work together; His provision
continues to overwhelm us!
And speaking of provision, we finally have wheels—and this
time FOUR of them! The process was pretty unbelievable. It started with us having to get our drivers’
license. We had some friends help us,
but it was about an 8-step process, including going from one place to the next,
having health exams, getting documents translated and “chopped” (kind of like
notarized) in the proper order, and finally taxing an exam. The exam itself was a beast! We were given a book that had the test bank
questions in it for us to study in advance.
It was written in English (with quite a few of the questions or answers
not making sense due to the way they were translated), but there were 1400
questions included! We had been told by
others (who we later found out took their tests in other provinces, which means
took different exams), that most of the questions were common sense. We can assure you that this was NOT the
case! Quite a few of them were; but when
you consider that there were 1400 questions to choose from, the test was
composed of 100 questions, and we had to make a 90% to pass, we definitely put
in the hours (and not in vain) in order to get our passing grades! After obtaining our licenses, we then had to
actually make the car purchase. Kevin
had done a ton of research, and we found the cheapest import car we could find
that would fit our entire family (a seven-seater Nissan mini-van). And we’ve been so pleased with it! Of course, that process too was no piece of
cake to handle….
I wish I had taken a photo of the “dealership”. I use this word loosely! I think we did about 6 u-turns with the
driver taking us there the first time while trying to find the place, finally
pulling back around on a dirt road to arrive at the place selling our vehicle
of choice—of which they didn’t even have the exact model in stock at the place
that we were wanting to purchase! After
negotiating and looking at one other dealership, we settled on the price and
started working on the paperwork. It
took them supposedly 4 days to get the car in (and then another 3 to get the
paperwork completed), which was good considering that it took us every one of
those seven days to get the amount of cash we needed moved from our US bank
account to our Chinese one. Our bank in
the US has a relationship with the one we use here, so we assumed this would be
a somewhat simple process. We were
wrong! When you’re transferring that
amount of money, there is literally no easy way to make it happen! To make a long story short, we finally got
the money (after lots of help from friends in the US, phone calls at crazy
hours of the night, and multiple trips to the bank here, and were able to make the purchase.
Because of a mistake on the part of the dealership, we ended
up getting the car several days later than expected and had to make unplanned
trips out to the boonies in order to bring stuff to them. So to make it up to us, they offered to
deliver the car to our home. When they
did, Kevin went out to meet them to find a car completely dirty on the outside,
no gas in the tank, no washer fluid at all, and a check-engine light on! He explained to them that this was
unacceptable, and rode with them back to the dealership when they made a few
adjustments then sent Kevin on his way.
We later found that there were even cigarette butts in the ash
tray! We were trying to imagine a
scenario in our US culture where this would be okay in the area of customer
service…. Maybe we should just be thankful that they at least filled up the
tires with air!
So driving here is hard to describe. Kevin said he feels like he’s driving amongst
a swarm of bees, and I think that’s about the best we can do to give an
accurate picture of what it’s like!
There are lanes marked (in most places), but that doesn’t really mean
anything. And the whole concept of
“right of way” is really based on who is bigger and more bold when it comes to
playing “chicken”. The bikes and busses
add another element of danger that makes it seem somewhat like you’re playing a
video game of dodging things coming at you from all directions when you’re
driving. We’ve been surprised that it’s
actually not as daunting as we thought it would be, but are definitely praying
every time we pull out of the parking garage under our apartment building and
have to be more than at our peak of awareness while behind the wheel. And we actually haven’t used the car that
much, mainly just to school and back, but the one trip to the supermarket I
made with the mini-van was revolutionary, I must admit! I actually filled up my entire shopping cart
(a sight which got me a LOT of looks and comments in the check out line), and
didn’t even worry about how in the world I was going to get it all home! I’m thinking there’s a chance I might be able
to go a full 2 or even 3 weeks before going back!
The kids have loved being back in school. Hudson had a really rough transition, crying
every morning when we dropped him off in his Kindergarten class, and even
clinging to Kevin’s leg some of the time!
It was heartbreaking for all of us involved, but he, just as we’d hoped
based on his previous experience with such times of transition, turned the
corner after about a week and now goes in with his usual happy-go-lucky
attitude and comes home with a glowing report about how great his day was. Karis and Eli, 3rd and 1st
grades respectively, are really enjoying their school activities, teachers, and
being back with friends. And they think
it’s pretty cool to have mom and dad both there every day, often getting to
each lunch together or even have me volunteering in their classes in different
capacities. Karis did have to miss the very first day of school, due to having a fever the day before; but she didn't seem to mind getting to stay home and have an extra half day of play all by herself with Ayi! The picture is of the rest of the family heading out the door...
We took some friends to the plant market last weekend (our
first outing in our new mini-van), partly because of the location (not a
highly-congested road to drive on for practice), and partly because it’s just a
fun place to go explore. The kids like
the plants themselves, but their favorite part is the animals. You can see the photo of the kids with the
puppies the displays of animals that are regularly there; vendors stacked on
top of each other with every kind of dog you can imagine (even the larger ones
that are illegal to have in most districts around town). The kids had a ball and we went through a
couple bottles of hand sanitizer!
We’ve also had fun catching up with some of our Chinese
friends since we’ve returned. The photo
of the little girl sitting on the coffee table with the boys is when some of
our friends came over (one with her 3 year old daughter) and had dinner (and
the kids played the Wii while we were eating).
The other photo of Karis alone is her holding the “gift” she
received from a neighbor during our walk home from the bus stop (the older 3
kids still ride the bus home from school, as the round trip there to pick them
up would take well over an hour for me to make in the mini-van).
The neighbor had grown this type of gourd in
their small porch area off of their first-floor apartment, and generously
shared it’s produce with Karis when she stopped to visit their dog.
We’re not sure what exactly to do with it, as
our ayi assured us we shouldn’t try to eat it raw but could cook it with meat
if we so choose.
Thinking that cutting
it open and just looking at it more closely might be more likely at this
point….
The photo of the kids on the floor is them with their new pets--2 hamsters, named Obi-Wan-Kanobe (Obi for short) and Snowball. The kids have started doing daily chores and getting allowance, so they have been saving up their money in order to purchase their new pets and their necessities. They are having a blast even now as I type building an elaborate home for them using their Magna-Tiles and Calico Critter furniture. Who needs video games when we have live entertainment?!
As far as the new babies in the picture, none of them bear
the last name Joseph! But we are
thrilled to be rejoicing with 2 TX couples who both have new additions. Cameron and Jennifer, friends from Dallas,
just had their first little girl. It’s
been fun to see them step into the roll of parents and celebrate the joy of new
life with them! Our other TX friends, Sam
and Charis, who have been in the process of adopting from here in China for
over a year now, finally brought home their little boy, Isaiah, last
night! We got to meet him briefly this
afternoon, and it delights me to no end to see the desire of my friends’ hearts
met in such an amazing way! Thinking we’ll
have a busy weekend catching up with friends and spending time with little ones
(and maybe even making a trek across town to one of our favorite,
hard-to-get-a-taxi-to restaurants for dinner one night, taking advantage of
having our own set of wheels!)
Will try to be better about keeping more regular
updates. Have to be honest and say that
most days feel like by the time the kids are in bed and lesson plans completed,
I’m about out of steam!
The following week we got to celebrate Eli's 7th birthday. I can't believe that I'm actually the Mom of an 8-year old and now a 7-year old, too! I just don't know where the time goes... Elis' original thought was that he could have a party with all his favorite friends invited. But when we started counting them up, we realized that they not only spanned quite a few different cities, but even several continents! He wanted to invite Will (in Seattle, WA), Chris (Poland), Kevin (Korea), and Jason and Jojo here in China. As a compromise, Eli ended up deciding to have his 2 best friends from school come over for a mini-birthday party. It was perfect because his bday was on a Monday, and we all happened to have a day off from school then. Unfortunately, one of the kids' moms forgot about the party, and their family was out and about and unable to be reached by phone, so Eli's bday party was really just our family and his one friend, Jason. But thankfully, Eli and Jason had a fantastic time together (playing a water gun game outside and then soccer, concluding with Eli's favorite brownie and pudding birthday dessert). One funny aspect I had to think through was how to get the invitation to Jason. His mom doesn't speak any English, and I don't think she speaks Chinese either (which I'm still trying to figure out, as she is Korean, but I'm pretty sure that Jason's dad is Chinese...Not really sure how communication works in that marriage???). So rather than calling to let her know about the party, I made up a VERY simple invitation in English so that Jason could read it to his mom to let her know that Eli wanted him to come over that day. I tell you what, we are definitely getting some practice in communicating cross-culturally on multiple levels!
Last weekend, I hosted a wedding shower for my best friend here, Ying Ying, who is getting married next month. We had a great time, but the preparation was more overwhelming than I was anticipating! Our guest list somehow grew to 26 before I knew it, and I was the only one hostessing--which meant a LOT of preparation! The day of the shower, I'd only heard back from one person that they weren't coming, so I literally had no idea if I should expect 25 or a lot fewer. So I had quite a spread out, just in case. Oh, and the bride had asked that i include that people NOT come with gifts, which meant the usual shower entertainment of gift-opening was not something I could count on to fill the time! Thus, I found quite a few on-line resources that had lots of good game ideas for wedding showers, and I think the afternoon went off with everyone enjoying the time and Ying Ying feeling loved and celebrated (and there only ended up being about 15 of us there--so much more manageable numbers!) The photo of the girls is one of the games we played--dress up the bride and bridesmaids with toilet paper dresses.
